Yeti Corner: I experienced Oculus, and it was…
Amazing. It was amazing.
I went in trying to keep my expectations low. I came away from it believing that VR will be an important part of the future of gaming.
The setting was a Best Buy right off the interstate in Arlington, Texas. About two-thirds of the way back, there was a workstation set up with an Oculus representative giving demos. I arrived a little early, so I got to watch the guy in front of me take the demo. They have a monitor set up so that spectators can see what the demo-er is seeing.
I watched him play a climbing demo. The Oculus rep stayed close behind the demo-er with his hands outstretched just in case the dude fell in real life. I thought that was a little weird, but quickly understood when I was up to climb.
When it was my turn, I stepped up and put the Oculus on. Or at least I tried to. I wear glasses – thick-rimmed, slightly wide glasses. The Oculus didn’t fit over them at first. I actually had to put my glasses in the Oculus, then put the Oculus (with my inset glasses) on my head. It was a little uncomfortable. I believe that I could adjust it to be more comfortable, but that wasn’t the point of this demo.
The demo consisted of five “experiences” and one game. The experiences are just short environments that you are immersed in. They are available on the Oculus in a package called Dream Deck. I’ll go through each quickly, with images below. Please note that these 2D images are not in any way representative of what the Oculus experience is like. I cannot stress that enough.
The Fox One:
This was the least impressive of the environments. It was vivid, which was a nice starting point with Oculus. As the image shows, it was polygonal. The wood creatures moved around and the environment was pretty, but it didn’t really show off a lot.
The City Tower One:
I was standing on top of a tower in a city at night. The Oculus rep asked me, “Are you afraid of heights?” I said no, so he told me to step forward and look down. I was right at the edge of this tower looking down to a street many stories below. It was the first giddy moment I had with Oculus on. The depth created by the 3D was incredibly immersive. I wish I could have spent more time in this scene.
The Alien One:
The next experience had me standing face-to-face with an alien on another planet. There was a spaceship in the background and a mountainous environment, but the alien was the star. It was bizarre looking at a sentient character through Oculus, in a really cool way. I’ve obviously had characters look at me through my TV before, but the immersion of Oculus makes it different. It was like the alien was sizing me up at the same time I was sizing him up.
The Little City One:
This was my favorite of the experiences. There is a miniature city floating in front of you. You can lean in and see details of the city like traffic. I immediately pictured a game like Civilization or SimCity. It would be amazing in any kind of board game or RTS-style game. VR controllers would be absolutely necessary, which is something that was sorely lacking from my demo.
The T-Rex One:
This is the most visceral of the experiences. You start standing in a long corridor in what looks like a museum. Looking around, there’s a dinosaur skull sitting in the window. Soon, a very large T-Rex comes around the corner at the end of the hall. It turns slowly, then charges toward you. When it gets close, it lets out a roar that includes saliva particulate flying everywhere in 3D. It looks you over, then continues on, walking directly over you.
The Climbing Game:
The last experience was the only really interactive one. All the others were just looking around and leaning. The Climb actually put a controller in my hand – an Xbox One controller, not any type of VR controls, which is a bit of a bummer.
You see two floating hands in front of you and are tasked with climbing up the facade of a cliff. You use the triggers on the controller to grab where you are looking. It was fun but incredibly gimmicky.
The environment was immersive, but the gameplay was not. I wanted to use my hands to climb, not my head. I was reaching with the controller when in reality I need to look at and lean toward the hand-holds that I wanted to grab. It had a bit of a learning curve, but I was able to cover some ground in the brief time I had.
It was incredibly cool to look around while climbing. You could look down or behind you. Or you could just focus on what was ahead. It was encouraging to see what VR could offer and I wish I could have spent more time with it, even if it was gimmicky.
So here are a few takeaways I had from the experience.
First, I now fear lots of injuries around VR. The immersion is incredibly disorienting. I never almost fell over (at least I don’t think I did) but I was very aware of the fact that the world I was looking into was not the world around me. People are going to fall on their faces. A lot.
Second, a truly immersive experience will require VR controllers. There can be great experiences based around tradition controllers or mouse and keyboard, and I’m pumped for those, but some games must have VR controllers.
Third, VR will be an additional component of gaming. It’s not going to be the only way to play games in the future. I will look forward, one day, to both VR games and traditional games.
Fourth, the audio leaves a lot to be desired. To be fair, I only experienced the built-in, Sony Walkman-esque foam headphones. But they suck. While the visuals were amazing, the audio was atrocious. The roar of the T-Rex, while visually striking, was sad, muffled, and distorted audio-wise. I think better headphones would help, but I’m still skeptical about the ability to create audio immersion at this point.
Lastly, I’m still not buying into the VR revolution yet. While I truly enjoyed the experience, and I’m itching for more of it, there’s just not enough out there yet to justify the price point. I’ve waited years, decades even, for this. I can wait until it gets a bit cheaper and more fleshed out.
